Grace Authentic review

This one reaches our Excellent band, and it gets there without a single flourish. The typical adult dry food settles a band lower in Good, and three plain facts account for the gap. Turkey is 41% freshly prepared with a further 19% dried, estimated carbohydrate is 31.4% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for a dry food, and no animal ingredient goes unnamed. Transparency reads Outstanding, value Excellent and the other two Good. Those readings come from the way the food is built, not from the way it is sold.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Turkey (41%), Dried Turkey (19%), Sweet Potato (12%), Peas (7%) Freshly Prepared Wild Boar (6%), Freshly Prepared Carrot (5%), Chickpeas (4%), Turkey Fat (3%), Turkey Gravy (1%), Carob, Linseed, Minerals, Fructooligosaccharides (2190 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (600 mg/kg), Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Parsley and Marjoram), Glucosamine 177.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 177.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Turmeric, Dried Apple, Dried Cranberry, Dried Mulberry, Dried Pear

The construction is the reason this reads so well. Freshly prepared turkey at 41% goes into the mix wet, and the oven takes that water away. Dried turkey at 19% goes in with its water already gone, so what the finished biscuit keeps is a genuinely large turkey share and not a large-sounding one. Declared protein converts to 35.9% of dry matter, near the top of what a dry food manages.

Turkey fat at 3% and turkey gravy at 1% keep the flavour and the fat on the same bird, which matters more than it sounds. Plenty of turkey recipes reach for an unnamed poultry fat at exactly that point on the list, and this one does not, which is why nothing here is guesswork for an owner reading carefully.

Freshly prepared wild boar at 6% is the recipe's one surprise. Boar is rare enough on a dog food label to count as a novel meat for almost any dog. It is lean and strongly flavoured, which tends to make it popular in the bowl.

Sweet potato at 12%, peas at 7% and chickpeas at 4% carry the starch between them. Fibre and a little protein come with the starch in whole peas and chickpeas. Spreading the load across three modest entries, in place of one large one, stops any single plant dominating the plate.

Linseed is the only omega 3 source, and it comes in the plant form. A dog has to convert it into the skin-active forms, which is slower than getting them ready made out of fish. That is the honest trade for a completely fish-free recipe. A coat may take weeks to answer where it might have taken days.

Three joint ingredients carry printed doses: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 177.5 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Fructooligosaccharides at 2190 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 600 mg/kg sit alongside them as prebiotics for the large intestine. Every added trace mineral carries a figure too: zinc and iron both at 48 mg per kilo, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 12 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.19 mg.

The tail of herbs and dried fruits, from oregano and thyme through to mulberry and pear, is a flourish, and turmeric is there for the same reason. None of it changes the food, which stands perfectly well on its turkey without help from the parsley.

£5.00 a kilo. It is sold in bags from 2kg up to 12kg, with a 24kg option supplied as two 12kg bags and working sizes at 15kg and 30kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 221 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). At that rate feeding comes to £1.10 a day. The bag's own chart asks 172 grams for the same dog. Pick a figure between those two and let the waistline settle it.